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Top stories around Africa this week

South Africa is looking for someone as bold as Thuli. As South Africa searches for a new state graft ombudsman, the eventual successor to Thuli Madonsela must balance rising public demands to intensify probes into corrupt officials and political pressure to tone down the office’s aggression.

Chinese company funding arms group in DRC. A Chinese mining company gave gifts of arms and cash to armed groups in Shabunda territory, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, according to Global Witness, an organisation campaigning to end the exploitation of natural resources and corruption in the global political and economic system.

Zimbabwe revolution draws nigh. Thesouthern African countrydeployed police in townships around the capital, Harare, on Wednesday amid calls for a strike by state workers over an economic collapse that has led to a shortage of cash, import controls and the failure of the government to pay salaries on time.

Return to the farm. Gabon and Olam International Ltd. are trying to persuade young people to take up farming in a nation that faces dwindling crude revenue and imports almost all of its food.

The Robot challenge. In June, NASA invited a small horde of robots and their makers to Massachusetts to compete for a chance to win as much as $1.5 million.

Ghana’s worst outlook in decades. Ghana cut its economic growth forecast for 2016 to the lowest rate in more than three decades as the country reduced its targets for oil and gold production.

Billion-dollar hydropower deal in Cameroon. Cameroon’s government and Electricite de France SA concluded a deal to build a 420 MW hydroelectricity plant that will increase the West Africa nation’s power capacity by more than a third.

Green power needs manpower. Africa is awash in funds earmarked for green power. Now it just needs the people to help install it all.

Power up Angola. Angola plans to introduce hydrokinetic power generation over the next decade as part of its 2025 Energy Security Plan, under which the southern African state has stated its aim to achieve 9,000 Megawatts of production by 2025.

Who would dare Netanyahu? Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied a Kuwait newspaper report that his convoy was redirected on its journey from Nairobi’s airport to a city hotel after Kenyan authorities said bombs had been detected along the planned route.

The Nerve Africa is an Africa focused growth information and digital news service that produces multi-perspective, simplified, engaging and high quality reportage on the new economy for smart African professionals and a global community interested in Africa.